Vidal Sassoon, the hairstyling genius responsible for overhauling the
tease and set styles of the ‘50s, passed away in his Los Angeles home
early this morning. Sassoon, who had styled such iconic manes as Twiggy, Mia Farrow and Mary Quant,
has been hailed as the visionary who introduced “ready-to-wear” hair to
women around the globe, and transformed the role of hair cutter into
hair stylist. Sassoon had been battling leukemia since 2006.

Sassoon started his journey at the age of 14, when he worked washing
hair and mixing hair colour. In 1954, he opened his own salon and spent
the next nine years perfecting his hair cutting techniques and styles.
In 1963 he earned the title “the founder of modern hairdressing” for the
revolutionary bob and five-point cut, styles that stood in stark
contrast to the beehive and bouffant that had preceded his esthetic. Hilary Alexander, fashion director of the Daily Telegraph,
tweeted “Much sadness on death of the architect of hair, Vidal Sassoon.
He banished the beehive, boosted the bob; most radical hair shift since
1920s.”

Sassoon explained his creative thinking behind this shift saying, “My
idea was to cut shape into the hair, to use it like fabric and take
away everything that was superfluous… Women were going back to work,
they were assuming their own power. They didn’t have time to sit under
the dryer anymore.”

It was Sassoon who was famously paid $5,000 (or so the story goes) to
give Mia Farrow a pixie cut—the same pixie cut that her husband at the
time, Frank Sinatra, didn’t like—for her role in Rosemary’s Baby. Today,
you can still see Sassoon’s influence in the young Hollywood starlet
set, including Winona Ryder, Michelle Williams and Emma Watson—women who fearlessly rock Sassoon-inspired looks and prove that short hair can be uber sexy with the right cut.

This week’s extra-special TGIF treat comes via Kate Middleton
and her latest red carpet appearance in London. Tonight (as in now, in
EST time warp terms), Kate is attending “Our Greatest Team Rises,” a
concert to celebrate British athletes competing in the upcoming London
Olympic games at the Royal Albert Hall. The details of who’s all playing
and/or attending are really inconsequential (okay, aside from Mel C.) when put in the same paragraph as this teal masterpiece by Jenny Packham.
The masterpiece is from Packham’s spring bridal collection, though the
colour wasn’t shown with the assortment. (Get it? Because they were all
white?) Also interesting to note is that Kate’s wearing the same Jimmy Choo heels that she wore earlier this week at Claridge’s Hotel. TGIF, indeed!